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Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
One must care about a world one will not see.
Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself.
In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
Every man would like to be God, if it were possible; some few find it difficult to admit the impossibility.
To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.
The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
The only thing that will redeem mankind is co-operation.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power.
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: "The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair." In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Love is something far more than desire for sexual intercourse; it is the principal means of escape from the loneliness which afflicts most men and women throughout the greater part of their lives.
War does not determine who is right - only who is left.